Progress

3,921 signed

6,079 more needed

Sign the Petition to

Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Congratulations on the approval of your post as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. I was pleased to see Congress finally take the necessary action to confirm your nomination so that you can begin the hard work ahead for the agency.

At a time when we need true leadership, I am encouraged by President Obama’s endorsements of your dedication to the stewardship and protection of our environment and public health and your history of leadership on clean air issues for more than three decades.

Appalachia has long borne the heavy environmental, economic and social costs of mountaintop removal and other radical forms of strip mining. During President Obama’s first term, the administration promised to restore longstanding stream protections to Appalachia.

I appreciate that the EPA took action during the Obama administration's first term that slowed mountaintop removal. But these measures were non-binding and do not have the force of law. Appalachian politicians and mining companies are challenging them.

Now is the time to make these protections legally binding and permanent, so that the EPA can fulfill its mission to protect streams and communities.

We urge you to take immediate action to:

- Issue a new regulation setting federal numeric water quality standards on conductivity to protect streams and communities in Appalachia from mountaintop removal mining pollution.

- Challenge any new 404 permits for valley fills requested by the coal industry and continue to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure stringent review of any permit for surface coal mining in Appalachia.

- Reject Kentucky's proposal to weaken selenium standards through an amendment to 401 KAR 10:031, and require strong, enforceable water-column based standards that will protect all aquatic life.

Signed,

Rainforest Action Network

This petition closed about 4 years ago

How this will help

Just this month Gina McCarthy became the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After more than five months of obstruction and delay by Congress, McCarthy is finally in a...

Just this month Gina McCarthy became the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After more than five months of obstruction and delay by Congress, McCarthy is finally in a position to halt the damaging environmental and health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. But in order to make sure that it is a top priority issue, she needs to hear from you today.